[TriLUG] TPP could invalidate the GPL

[Michael Hall via TriLUG]

On 11/06/2015 04:13 PM, Bill Farrow via TriLUG wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 6, 2015 at 3:21 PM, Roger Broseus <RogerB at bronord.com> wrote:
>> It's not clear to me, after reading the post, what the rationale is that
>> says the TPP is bad for open source and/or FOSS
>>
>>> "No Party shall require the transfer of, or access to, source code of
>>> software owned by a person of another Party, as a condition for the
>>> import, distribution, sale or use of such software, or of products
>>> containing such software, in its territory."
>>>   http://keionline.org/node/2363
> 
> The GPL requires that the recipients have access to source code. If
> the TPP says that you can't require access to the source code, then
> the terms of the GPL would not be met and the recipient would not have
> a license to use the copyrighted work.
> 
> Please correct me if I am wrong here. I would love to see a logical
> decomposition that arrives at a different conclusion.
> 
> 
> Bill
> 

I believe that the "Party" referenced there is one of the national
governments that has signed the TPP agreement. That means that China,
for example, can't require that Microsoft provide it with the source
code to Windows as a condition of selling Windows in China.

It does not interfere with the provisions of the GPL or any other
copyright license (open or closed).

Michael Hall
mhall119 at ubuntu.com